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Chattanooga/Cleveland, Tennessee

On Wednesday, October 11th, we traveled the relatively short distance from just north of Nashville to just southeast of Chattanooga, where we had reserved a site at the Chattanooga South/Cleveland KOA. We were given a very roomy spot on the end of a row of RVs that suited us just fine. Later that evening, we visited with some of Cindy’s family who live in Cleveland. They used to live in south Florida when we lived there. Going back even further, we spent most of our honeymoon in their house in Pompano Beach back in the ancient year of 1979.

Our lovely site at the Chattanooga South/Cleveland KOA

The beautiful property of Cindy’s Aunt Sis and her son, Gary, and his wife, Barb.

On Thursday, we drove into Chattanooga to visit one of my childhood vacation favorites, Rock City. I had remembered the kitsch associated with the tourist destination, but I had forgotten just how beautiful it was there. All three of us were pleasantly surprised at how gorgeous the scenery and vistas were.

The girls enjoying Rock City in the fall.

Photo-op.

Heading down into the Grand Corridor at Rock City.

Christy did not like “The Needle’s Eye” or “Fat Man’s Squeeze.” She is extremely claustrophobic. She especially didn’t like it when I was holding her hand and leading her through and I started yelling, “Help! I’m stuck!” 🙂

Mushroom Rock

A couple of goblins at the underpass.

What a gorgeous view! Ladies on the Swinging Bridge.

And on the slightly less disconcerting Sky Bridge.

As the sign says, one can supposedly see seven states from atop Lookout Mountain. Since I can’t see where one ends and the other begins, I’ll take their word for it.

Cindy and I standing out on a platform on the cliff with Lover’s Leap behind.

Barry on the cliffside platform.

And Cindy on the platform!

Cindy and Christy beneath the several ton Balancing Rock

Near the end of the Rock City Trail one enters Fairyland Caverns, a blacklist journey through dark passageways studded with glow-in-the-dark depictions of various fairytales. Here’s one of them.

We had a quick bite after walking the enchanted trail, and then headed over to the Battles of Chattanooga. There, we checked out a free educational display provided by the National Park Service. Then, we paid for an average multi-media history of the Civil War battles which took place in and around the city of Chattanooga.

Large painting depicting the Battle of Chattanooga. From civilwar.org: “After taking charge of the Union’s western armies in October of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant focused on lifting the Confederate siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which had been in place since the Battle of Chickamauga in September. Grant opened the “Cracker Line” across the Tennessee River to bring supplies to the beleaguered Army of the Cumberland inside the city, and, in mid-November, brought Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee into the city as well. The Confederates under Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg had established themselves on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, both of which had commanding views of the city. On November 23rd, the reinforced Federals began to fight their way out, overrunning Orchard Knob at the base of Missionary Ridge and gaining a foothold for continued attacks against the Confederate line. The next day, Grant launched an attack on Lookout Mountain and captured it after six hours of fighting. On November 25th, Grant ordered Sherman to attack Tunnel Hill on the ridge east of the city. While Sherman’s initial attack was a failure, a second attack by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas managed to completely break the center of the Confederate line along Missionary Ridge. This third victory in three days compelled a Confederate withdrawal and opened up the deep South to a Union invasion.”

The three-dimensional map with 5000 miniature soldiers and 650 lights on which is recounted the Battles for Chattanooga.

On Friday, we chilled for most of the morning. Then, in the afternoon we visited with Cindy’s family again before going out for an evening meal together at O’Charleys. We had a great two days and three nights in the area, but the next morning we would move on to my home state of Georgia.

Gary and I in his “barn”/garage where he restores old vehicles. Very cool!

Gary, Barb, Christy, and Cindy on the bridge on their property.

We all met up at Beatitude II after our dinner. We so enjoyed hanging out with our family.